This portrait of Robert R. Livingston painted by John Vanderlyn was presented as a gift to the Academy of Fine Arts in New York in 1804. Livingston was the founder and first president of the Academy, and his admiration for the art of Europe led him to commission plaster casts of antique sculptures for its New York home. The letter on the table next to him shown in the painting, addressed to his title as minister of plenipotentiary from the United States, links his overarching diplomatic mission to Paris with his more personal interests and passions for French art and culture.

This Chinese export porcelain punch bowl belonged to Chancellor Robert R. Livingston. It is decorated with Masonic symbols, including a sun, moon, beehive, square and compass, and scythe. The bowl may have been presented to the Chancellor by his fellow Freemasons around 1795, on his fiftieth birthday. Robert R. Livingston served as grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of New York from 1784 to 1801, and oversaw the founding of eighty-three new lodges across New York State. When he administered the oath of office to President George Washington in 1789, Livingston used a Masonic pillow, further cementing the relationship between the ancient fraternal order and the growing American Republic.

Chancellor Livingston’s silk waistcoat, along with his tailcoat, is embroidered in various colors of silk in ornate floral and leaf designs. As seen in the portrait painted by John Vanderlyn, the Chancellor appreciated fine silk garments and enjoyed ornamental designs on his public clothes. His taste may have been indebted to French style, which he was exposed to during his time in France.

This white silk Masonic apron belonged to Chancellor Livingston, who was an active member of the Freemasons. The iconography embroidered on the front symbolizes the Masonic themes of truth, liberty, and citizenship. The apron itself referenced the original garment of the stonemason, and was a badge of membership and honor within the fraternity. Lodge members commonly wore aprons during important ceremonies. Livingston may have worn his apron while executing his duties as grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of New York, where he was a member from 1784 to 1801.

This sofa is one of a pair probably made for Margaret and Robert L. Livingston. The second from the set of two, it is upholstered with tapestry purchased while the couple was in France with her father, Robert R. Livingston, during his time as United States minister there. The pair of sofas, which do not match exactly, still retain their original upholstery.

This lady's cabinet dressing table was possibly made on the occasion of the Chancellor's daughter, Margaret Maria Livingston's, wedding in July 1799. The veneer swags were a distinctly New York motif, yet the design of the form was borrowed from a plate in Thomas Sheraton’s Cabinet Maker’s and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book, published in London in 1793. Although England and the United States were politically opposed, the design of the dressing table illustrates that stylistic and material exchanges between the two were frequent.

This French Empire table emulates a style similar to furniture made in New York by French émigré cabinetmaker Charles-Honoré Lannuier (1779-1819). When Robert R. Livingston returned to the Hudson Valley after his tenure in Paris, he took with him a passion for French furniture and design, and decorated his estate with the spoils of his journey. This pier table may have resided in the dining room at Clermont, along with other elegant French furnishings.

Duncan Phyfe, a prominent New York cabinetmaker, produced several elegant chairs for the Livingston family. The rich mahogany and double-cross back of this chair, one of a pair, was similar to a set owned by merchant William Bayard Jr. (1761-1826), a close neighbor in New York City. Such chairs demonstrated wealth and status, and could be found in many stately households during the early nineteenth century.

This painted Windsor-style settee is said to have been used on the Clermont, the first commercially successful steamboat to operate in the United States. Robert R. Livingston was a partner in the enterprise with the steamboat’s engineer, Robert Fulton (1765-1815). Interestingly, Fulton eventually married Livingston's niece Harriet Livingston (1786-1824). The maiden voyage of the Clermont, named for Livingston's estate, departed from the Chancellor's property in the Hudson Valley in 1807 and ran between New York City and Albany until it was retired in 1814. Family lore suggests that the bench, originally one of a pair, resided on the porch of Livingston's home before it was redecorated and placed on the rear deck of the steamboat.

This mantel clock, once owned by the Livingston family, represents the allegory of Venus and Adonis. It depicts the goddess of love in a swan-pulled chariot gazing at her lover, and with her son Cupid nearby. A similar clock, thought to have belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte’s mother, is at the emperor’s home, Malmaison, located outside of Paris. Livingston’s relationship to the Napoleonic court was often strained during his time there as the United States Minister. Yet, the Chancellor cautiously admired the French, writing to his sister Alida in 1802 that "Pleasure is in short the only pursuit of the gay world here."